Well, I’ve packed my proverbial bags and moved over to rebecca-roach.squarespace.com. I do love WordPress & it’s an incredible platform for blogging, but I had several reasons to make a switch:

1. My new web address is my name- Not any catch phrase or branding. Just me. It’s the most refreshing thing I’ve done in a while because I don’t feel tied down to just one aspect of my life. Even though I’ve always been able to write about anything I’m working on, it still felt icky to me when I posted something that wasn’t quilt related. I guess this reason is more for me that anyone else, though. 99% of my content will remain quilting, since that’s how I roll…

2. I was tired of all the junk on my site & wanted something that was clean- No buttons or sidebars or nonsense. After previewing a million themes, both free and paid, I just couldn’t find anything on WordPress that was as simple (yet beautiful!) as any of the themes on Squarespace. They are all lovely and have the same feel whether you look at it on a computer or phone or tablet. And I don’t have to pay anything extra to use Typekit or have to mess around with questionable plug-ins made by even more questionable people…

3. A calendar! Yes, this is a stupid reason and I could have gotten a plug-in to make a calendar on here, but it was a basic page option in Squarespace! Boom! Now I have a reason to visit my own website beyond being an admin. I’ve cut and pasted meetings and quilt show entry deadlines to give me a resource for project management. In the past, I had to go all over the damn internet to find deadlines & now everything is right here at my fingertips. Or rather, *will be* at my fingertips. It’s a lot of tedious work to pull deadlines, so I’m waging a war of attrition and posting a few at a time.

4. A future shop! I won’t have to go to Etsy or Big Cartel or any other site to make a storefront because it’s a built in feature. All I have to do is click a button to enable shopping and it will have the same look and feel as the rest of my site without any extra work. Now, I don’t know when I’ll offer anything for sale- I think I’ll just put up a page with links to my online patterns for now- but when I’m ready, there will be a home for mah steez.

So, if you would, hop over to rebecca-roach.squarespace.com and see the wonderment I have going on over there. Update your links! (If you want, that is… I don’t know your life!) And have a happy Monday! -r

With the help of my brother & his girlfriend, I transformed the most boring wall in my entire house.

This is what the wall looked like when I first moved in:

It’s 10′ high, over 18′ long and felt like a hospital corridor. It was just a sea of white and I’ve been dreaming of a way to change it for two years now. However, everything I’ve wanted was either A. Too expensive, B. Too difficult for a DIY job, or C. Too expensive (I can’t stress this enough). Until now!

We started by painting the entire wall with a gallon of Behr Marquee paint in the color Secret Society. It was hands down the best paint I’ve ever used. It went on in a single coat and there was almost no smell! I was floored.

The next day, we gathered our tools:

Scissors, white chalk, masking tape, string, a star map with an overlaid grid that I made in photoshop, and decorative nails in three different sizes- 3/8″, 7/16″, and the half inch-ish pyramid tacks from Target. I love thee, Nate Berkus. Let me count the ways…

Using chalk, we marked off every foot on all four sides of the wall and then used these marks to tape up lengths of string. It needed to be as tight as possible to avoid droopy lines, so this took a while to complete. For the vertical lines, we decided that only two were necessary because we could keep moving them down the wall as the design was being marked. So, the top of each string has a piece of masking tape and the bottom had a weight tied to it:

The top was taped to the chalk mark and the weight was aligned with the bottom. Then we got to marking out the star map- A small dot stood for where to put a 3/8″ nail, an X marked the 7/16″ nails, and a circle stood for the pyramid tacks. Square by square, we used the gridded map to plot out where all of our nails would go.

Next, we put up all the nails and wiped away any chalk that showed with a damp kitchen towel.

I decided this looked too random for my taste and went out to buy a gold paint pen from Jerry’s Artarama. Using a ruler, I drew lines to connect the stars within each constellation. The short lines were done freehand, otherwise I would still be on a ladder marking everything.

And here is what it looked like before we put all the furniture back into place:

For just over $50 and a weekend’s worth of time, we decorated almost 20′ of wall space. You’d think the dark color would make the room feel smaller and dark, but it doesn’t. The constellations make your eyes go all the way up to the ceiling and dance around from star to star. When natural light hits the pyramids, there’s a sparkle that lights up the entire entry way. My plan was to treat this as I would wallpaper and hang up art, but I can’t make myself do it! I think it’ll stay this way for a while…

Since the February Modern Quilt Guild Pattern of the Month was released yesterday (P.S. It’s by Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts & she’s awesome!), I’m going to start selling my Broken Bars quilt pattern to regular folk outside of the guild. It’s available on Pattern Spot by C&T Publishing and the Craftsy pattern marketplace, but I just made my account on Craftsy, so it might not show up for a day or so. I thought it would be good to offer it at a couple of different places, in case y’all already had an account with one or the other…. Anyways, happy hump day! -r

Pay no attention to my ashy hand!! Lol My sewing machine Rory was being serviced at a local Bernina dealer for most of January, so I started some little appliqué projects. I usually do handwork while sitting on the couch & forever seem to knock my spools of thread off the armrest. It’s a pain, but even more so when the cat hangs out nearby & thinks falling thread is my attempt to play with him. After he batted a third spool underneath the couch, I had to lay down on the ground & reach into the abyss to find it- but also found two quarters & a tube of cherry chapstick, as well, so yay! Bonus. Anyways, that was the last straw. I broke down, ran a vacuum under my couch because it was gross, & decided to find a solution to my thread problems.

On of my side hobbies is jewelry making & I have an account at Rio Grande Jewelry Supply. I found a bronze ring blank that is intended as a base for metal clay work, but it screamed spool to me. I used my jeweler’s saw to cut a channel into the side for holding the thread end & mounted it onto a bobbin winder by squeezing a packing peanut inside. It took some manuevering, & careful finger placement to keep the thread from sliding up onto the peanut, but it wound full in about 30 seconds. Et voila!

I’m going to make one for each finger so I can be the Liberace of quilting. Anyways, I’m having a happy snowless Snow Day from work! Yay! -R

I just noticed this was published loud & proud over on the Austin City Stitches website, so I guess I can talk about it now- I’m going to be teaching not one, not two, but… Wait for it… THREE classes in Feb & March at their store! Woot! It’s been in the works for a while now, so I’m glad it’s almost here. Here are the class descriptions straight from their site or you can peep their full class list by clicking here:
Beginning Sewing – Modern Quilting 101

The Popsicle Quilt is a modern design that incorporates the principles of negative space and asymmetry. It’s constructed using basic piecing and an adapted version of the Five Minute Circle technique. Students will learn to create and use freezer paper templates that make sewing curves easy. This technique can also be used for any kind of circle or curve, so it’s a good one to add to your quilting toolbox. At the end of class, you’ll leave with a completed quilt top and more confidence in sewing circular quilt blocks.
*HANDS-ON CLASS – bring your machine and accessories.* Supply list at registration.
Fee: $45.00(6 hrs)
Saturdays, Mar. 15 & 22, 10:30 – 1:30
Instructor: Rebecca Roach

Techniques – Quilt Binding 101

After quilting a project, there is a multitude of ways to finish off the edges. In this class, we will explore different types of binding techniques – from satin stitches to facings, to both straight grain and bias binding. Learn how to choose which one is appropriate for your project and how to apply it quickly and successfully every time!
*HANDS-ON CLASS – bring your machine and accessories.*
Supply list at registration.
Fee: $35.00(3 hrs)
Wed, Mar. 5, 6:30 – 9:30
Instructor: Rebecca Roach

This whole teaching business has got me excited for three reasons:
1. I’m getting a chance to teach something that I love!!!! Well, binding isn’t exactly in love with me, but whatever…
2. I’m helping out my North Austin peeps with their quiltin’ needs, yo!! No need to drive 20 miles to find a modern quilt!
3. The store is next door to Aquatek Tropical Fish. If I make you snore snooze in class, then you can go over & feed piranhas or whatever they have in their tanks… Ooh, their website says they have a Foxface Rabbitfish in stock!! Now you *have* to take a class so you can find out what the hell it looks like… Or a Thick Lip Swordtail Festivum. Ha. I made that up. Or did I?

Anyways, call them up at Austin City Stitches 512-374-9712 & sign up for good times. r

So, it’s 2014. I’ve always made a New Year’s resolution, but I don’t know that I’ve ever followed through with one. Last year felt like a bit of a blur because I couldn’t make myself do anything for the first part & then sewed like a crazy person at the end. In fact, I’m sitting here right now with a swollen & numb index finger from hand quilting. But I had altogether too many starts & not enough finishes. My brain likes to jump ship on things when I get halfway through because it’s always looking for the next idea. I have sketch books upon sketch books with ideas & WIP’s galore and I tell myself,”NOTHING NEW UNTIL YOU FINISH THIS PROJECT!!!” But my brain is wily & finds a way around my pronouncements. If I don’t want to finish a quilt, it decides I need to write a play.... Or sew a mini winter quilt…

But no, the top & bottom are too disjointed! It looks like Christmas in Mordor! So, my brain tells me to split it on two & make a pair of damn winter mini quilts…

Or instead draw a miniature drawing of Benedict Cumberbatch…

Or work on anything else, really. It wasn’t until I was sitting in my room with a paintbrush in my teeth & roughing in an oil painting with a palette knife that I begin to question myself-” What kind of procrastination hell is this??? Just bind your damn quilt, already!!!” Lol So, I did. & I wrote a pattern, too. 2014 is the year to make my thoughts turn into reality, but with a heretofore unseen consistency!! The word of the year is FINISH. So, let’s go get started on something, shall we? r

Whew… I was supposed to mail my mini quilt for the Schnitzel & Boo swap last friday, but my fingers wouldn’t let me. They put up a protest after I finished the embroidery and moved onto the hand quilting. But hey, it’s going in the mail tomorrow, so I’m not too late! I hope…

I wanted the quilting to provide texture only, so I sewed horizontal lines in a 100wt gray silk by Superior Threads. I went around the strawberries which gave them a nice trapunto effect:

The edges are finished with a facing technique that uses folded triangles on the corners:

Since the quilt is only 8.5″x11″, the triangles allowed me to stick in unsharpened pencils as a hanging device. The top pencil hangs nicely on a nail and the bottom one keeps everything flat and square:

Anyway, I hope my partner likes it. It has a trip across the pond coming tomorrow! Yay!

Thank you to everyone who commented!! It looks like we’re all busy for the holidays. I put all the Farm to Fork people in one list & had Random.org choose for me, so congratulations Catrin!!!!! I will email you shortly for your mailing address. And for Ninjas Don’t Sweat, the winner is Jenn! I’ll email you, too. Thanks for playing, everyone!

BTDubs, here’s what I accomplished this weekend:

I improv pieced some strips from my Botanics roll & used carbon paper to trace the outlines of an antique botanical print. I’ve been embroidering over the lines with a mix of chain & split stitches using black Aurifil 12wt thread. There will be fabric appliquéd over where the strawberries go & then I’ll chain stitch around them, too. Then I’ll quilt it & finish the edges with a facing. Whew. Good thing it’s only 9″ tall or else my fingers would have already fallen off!!! Anyways, happy Monday, y’all!!! -r

In my last post, I told you I went to Market in support of my friend Lily Gonzales-Creed & here she is with Pat Fryer of Villa Rosa Designs. When I first walked around the corner to her booth, this is what I saw:

Doesn’t she look like the happiest person on the planet??! I’m talking children at Christmas time happiness, people… Love it. Her booth had a split personality because she was debuting two collections for Windham Fabrics with very different themes, but a with a harmonious color palette. I remember sitting with her and Kim Place at Epoch Coffee a few months ago when she pulled out all the paper elevations to her booth design & thinking, “How on earth is she going to cram all of that in there??” But she did! And it was perfect!

One side featured the line Farm to Fork and her flying pigs made from the bacon print were just about the cutest things ever. She also designed a quilt that will be a free pattern when the fabric releases in April 2014:

The other side of the booth featured the line Ninjas Don’t Sweat (which also comes out next April) and I totally spaced on getting a good photo of her Octopus with throwing stars! Argh. But you can see it over on her blog, plus all of the cool things Kim made her to go in the booth- including all of her dresses! OMG. She had a different handmade outfit from Kim for every day on the show floor. I managed to sew up that quilt up there in the second photo and it’s called Flying Stars. It (and Lily’s Farm to Fork quilt) were quilted by Jessica Darling of Remnants:Fiber[Culture]. Hopefully, it will also be a free pattern for Windham this Spring. Woot!

So, let’s get to the giveaway part of the post! I was lucky enough to get some free fabric from Lily- okay, I may have ran out of her house with it while she wasn’t looking- and I think it would be great to share it with some of my readers, along with some sweet Quilt Market swag, of course. One person will win some fat quarters (some prints might be smaller, though) of Farm to Fork:

And another will win some fat quarter-ish pieces of Ninjas Don’t Sweat:

And both winners will have some random swag thrown in, like thread or magazines or more fabric. Who knows?! So, all you have to do is leave a comment saying which fabric line you want & also tell me what project you’re working on right now. After I post this, I have to get hopping on my Schnitzel & Boo mini quilt swap project! My swap partner lives overseas, so I want to ship it out early. You have until Sunday, November 3rd at midnight to comment and I’ll announce the winners on Monday around noontime CST. Good luck and Happy Wednesday!! -r